DavidMcKenna

Stella Creasy is such as arse

*which in fact, for some strange reason, seem to act more as obstacle to adequate politics-explaining

Just paying a modicum of attention to stuff like this and having a reasonably good memory - as opposed to having privileged Westminster connections* like our most highly paid politics-explainers - was sufficient when it came to figuring out what Starmer's Labour would be like in power

aha, cheers!

does it say anywhere?

Looks like maybe... Rennes on the cover?

Slightly diminish a band:

The Compote

Public Nuisance

The thing is: there's no entry fee, it relies on venues supplying a room for free, a bit of funding could help with venue & gear hire

Absolutely this. Friends of mine have been running a free improvisation night, open to anyone, in & around Cambridge for a few years now, I get along when I can. It has encouraged people with their own musical projects and fostered new collaborations and friendships

At what point do we just admit that Keir Starmer, and the class he represents, seem to have decided their job is to just kill off everyone in this archipelago?

First time I can recall a correspondent saying right out that the IDF is not a reliable source, that it is in fact a very dubious one and that it is quite possible they simply fabricate evidence to justify their murders

yes absolutely a French thing too

oh I do that sometimes! I think in my case it's something I picked up from my mum, so it's an Italian thing. I do it when speaking too

Anyway, I can hear DCI Frank Burnside knocking so I'll probably leave it there...

Agreed, so I guess if one sees liberals/centrists as being of "the left" then "the left" has failed to defend free speech - but I don't see them as being left-wing and many of them don't either. And the 'not liking being challenged' is often what the accusations of censoriousness are really about

Looking forward to a visit from Frank!

Inside Labour students’ revolt over Gaza The tensions between party HQ and its members on university campuses are becoming impossible to ignore.

Its obviously unsustainable for the nominally progressive party in a two party system to repeatedly do things that are abhorrent to basic progressive values. And to be led by people who hold progressive politics in contempt. Now the breaking point has arrived.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

ha OK. I'm sure you can see how that breaks down with a specific issue like trans rights - well-funded attacks from the right & 'reasonable concerns' from eg columnists & academics facing resistance from trans people & allies, that pushback being portrayed as being 'annoying', censorious...

Well as you say, 'lol' at the idea that any of those people are genuinely progressive. And agreed, it's not about whether the red or the blue team is in charge. I'm still not clear on how "the left" is responsible for that state of affairs

Again it's about the power differential - the folks with the platforms, the money and political influence tend not to be on the left and they will always push back against any challenge to their right to be racist, sexist, transphobic etc

I guess I'd need more specific examples. Not denying that left policing doesn't overreach (or the humourless at times) just questioning the part that has played in the state of things now

jfc

YouTube video by 3010 - Topic pas de nom

Another great one www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDRg...

YouTube video by 3010 - Topic mon nom

Checked to see if rapper/beatmaker 3010 had released anything recently and it turns out this superb album, Baraka, came out in May. The terrific opening track: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgIy...

Is that really what happened though? The denigration was more of liberal/right-wing 'free speech' advocates who are nothing of the sort, no? Also seems a bit 'look what you made me do', especially given "the left's" lack of institutional power

Bono's statement still manages to repeat Israeli propaganda. Also saw someone saying that U2 are the "first major act to put their heads over the parapet". But Dua Lipa didn't wait to see which way the wind was blowing

Support the excellent Cambridge-based night Heart of Noise. The comp features excerpts of live performances from the likes of A-Sun-Amissa, Georgina Brett, Internal Object, laura dymphna... plus yours truly as part of Concrete Gazebo

"Elderly people, a blind man in a wheelchair... they stood beneath statutes of the great leaders of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi & the suffragette Millicent Fawcett. The symbolism was clear"

Sky News reporting on the Met police arresting hundreds of people in London today

That's almost 600 people arrested in total for terrorism charges. One of the most colossal fuck ups I've ever seen.